July 5, 2019
The Facebook post by disability rights activist Arman Ali
highlighting the discrimination he faced from Uber drivers has been taken
notice of by the Centre, a move that many in the disability sector hope will
lead to greater sensitivity from all service providers.
Uber India continues to face heat for the insensitivity
shown by its drivers in Chennai towards well-known disability rights activist
and National Centre for Promotion of Employment of Disabled
People‘s executive director Arman Ali.
Almost two weeks after Ali took to Facebook to report the discrimination he
faced while traveling to Chennai aiport, the Social Justice and
Empowerment Ministry has asked Uber India to take action against the
erring drivers. Ali had tagged his post to the Prime Minister’s
Office and Narendra Modi.
Details of the letter, first reported on PTI and now widely
circulated in the media, say the ministry has asked Uber to “take appropriate
measures to sensitise its drivers to take care of persons with disability so
as to avoid any recurrence of such incidents in future. Action taken in this
regard may be intimated to this Department”.
In his Facebook post, Ali said that because of the insensitive treatment, he
missed his flight to Delhi and had to shell out ₹14,000 to book a fresh air
ticket. All Uber India did was apologise and offer a refund of the
cancellation fee of ₹45.
The letter from the government has been welcomed by many. Bengaluru-based
social entrepreneur and disability rights activist Ankit Rajiv
Jindal hopes this will make service providers more sensitive to the
needs of the community.
It is about time services especially, in the private sector, take
cognizance of people with disabilities. It is high time the needs of the
community are taken into account. Uber must sensitise its drivers. The
issue is that inaccessibility runs deep and its also on us to stop treating
it like the norm, be it when it comes to banking, IT, etc. All sectors have
to take cognizance. – Ankit Rajiv Jindal, Social
entrepreneur
The more the community speaks up, the greater will be the pressure exerted on
all. “Last year, a white paper was brought out by the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) regarding making telecom
services accessible”, says Ankit, “but there has been movement forward.
Website accessibility is an issue too, so the onus is on us to speak out and
make our voices heard”.
Source: https://newzhook.com/story/22749
